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Nevada puts psychiatric patient on bus to California

Man given Greyhound ticket, told to dial 911 for help when he got to Sacramento

Published: 03/16/2013 at 8:18 PM

(Sacramento Bee) A state psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas “blew it” by discharging a mentally ill patient to a Greyhound bus bound for Sacramento last month without ensuring he had care and housing in California, Nevada health officials admitted Thursday.

“We own it. We blew it, and we are taking corrective action,” Michael Willden, director of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, told a legislative committee.

Nevada lawmakers scheduled the hearing in response to a story in The Bee this month about James Flavy Coy Brown, who arrived in February at the Loaves & Fishes homeless services complex in Sacramento carrying his walking papers from a Nevada state mental hospital and a schedule detailing his 15-hour bus ride from Las Vegas.